Carol Elaine Channing (born on January 31, 1921 in
Seattle, Washington) is an American singer
and actress. The winner of three Tony Awards (including a
lifetime achievement award), a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nominee, Channing is best remembered for two roles: Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Dolly Gallagher Levi in Hello, Dolly!.
She is easily recognized by her distinctive voice and wide eyes. Her unusual mannerisms and personality are frequently
parodied. One famous impression was done by comedian Ryan Stiles on the hit show "Whose Line is it Anyway?".
Childhood and Education
Channing was born, an only child, on January 31, 1921 in
Seattle, Washington. Her father's newspaper career took the family to
San Francisco when Channing was only two weeks old. She went to school at
Aptos Junior High School, where she met an Armenian-American man named Harry Kullijian
with whom she fell in love. They lost touch when she went to Lowell High
School in San Francisco. At Lowell, Channing was a member of its famed
Lowell Forensic Society, the nation's oldest high school debate team.
When she left home to attend Bennington College in Vermont, her mother, Carol stated much later in her memoirs, informed her that her father, a journalist who she
had believed was born in Rhode Island, was of German
American and African American descent, born in Augusta, Georgia, saying that the only reason she was telling her was so she wouldn't be surprised "if
she had a black baby". She kept her heritage secret so she would not be typecast on Broadway and in Hollywood, ultimately
revealing it only in her autobiography, Just Lucky I Guess, published in 2002 when she was
81 years old. It should be noted, at the same time, that Carol also wrote in that tome that she saw a rainbow over the pancreas
of her dying friend, Mary Martin. Carol's autobiography, although containing a photograph of
her mother, displays none of her father or son.
Career
Channing was introduced to the stage while doing church work for her mother. In a 2005 interview with the Austin Chronicle,
Channing recounted this experience:
- "My mother said, 'Carol, would you like to help me distribute Christian
Science Monitors backstage at the live theatres in San Francisco?'
And I said, 'All right, I'll help you.' I don't know how old I was. I must have been little. We went through the stage door alley
[for the Curran Theatre], and I couldn't get the stage door open. My mother came and opened it very easily. Anyway, my mother
went to put the Monitors where they were supposed to go for the actors and the crew and the musicians, and she left me alone. And
I stood there and realized – I'll never forget it because it came over me so strongly – that this is a temple. This is a
cathedral. It's a mosque. It's a mother church. This is for people who have gotten a glimpse of creation and all they do is
recreate it. I stood there and wanted to kiss the floorboards."[1]
Channing's first job on stage in New York was in Marc Blitzstein's No For an Answer, which was given two special Sunday
performances starting January 5, 1941 at the Mecca Temple (later
New York's City Center). Channing then moved to Broadway for Let's Face It, in which she was an understudy for
Eve Arden.
Channing had a featured role in a revue, Lend an Ear, where she was spotted by Anita
Loos and cast in the role of Lorelei Lee, which was to bring her to prominence. (Her signature song from the production
was "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend.") Channing's persona and that of the character were strikingly alike: simultaneously
smart yet scattered, naïve but worldly.
Channing came to national prominence as the star of Jerry Herman's Hello, Dolly!
She never missed a performance during her run, attributing her good health to her Christian
Science faith. Her performance won her the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical,
in a year when her chief competition was Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl. She was deeply disappointed when Streisand, who many believed to be far too young for the
role, signed on to play the role of Dolly Levi in the film, which also starred Walter
Matthau and Michael Crawford.
She reprised the role of Lorelei Lee in the musical Lorelei, and appeared in two New
York revivals of Hello, Dolly!, in addition to touring with it extensively throughout the United States. She also appeared in a number of movies, including the cult film Skidoo and Thoroughly Modern Millie, opposite
Julie Andrews and Mary Tyler Moore. For
Millie she received a nomination for the Academy Award for
Best Supporting Actress, and was awarded a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.
In 1966 she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre.
William Goldman, in his book The Season, refers to Channing as a classic
example of a "critic's darling" -- an actress who is always praised by critics no matter the caliber of her work, chiefly because
she is simply so unusual and bizarre (other actresses he places in this category include Sandy
Dennis and Beatrice Lillie.)
Channing was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 1995[2], and an honorary doctorate in Fine Arts by California State University, Stanislaus in 2004.[3] She and husband Harry are active in promoting arts education in California
schools.
Family Life
She has been married four times. Her first husband, Theodore Naidish, was a writer; her second, Alexander Carson, was center
for the Ottawa Rough Riders Canadian
football team (they had one son, Channing Lowe, who is a cartoonist and who took his step-father's surname). In
1956 she married her manager and publicist, Charles Lowe. They remained married for 42 years, but
she abruptly filed for divorce in 1998. He died before the divorce was finalized.
On May 10, 2003, she married Harry Kullijian, her fourth husband
and junior high school sweetheart, who reunited with her after she mentioned him fondly in her memoir. The two performed at their
old junior high school, which had become Aptos Middle School, in a benefit for the school. At Lowell High School, they renamed the school's auditorium "The Carol Channing Theatre"
in her honor. The City of San Francisco, California proclaimed
February 25, 2002 to be Carol Channing Day, for her
advocacy of gay rights and her appearance as the celebrity host of the Gay Pride Day
festivities in Hollywood. She shared the stage with Richard Skipper, well known Carol Channing Tribute Artist. Richard recently
did a benefit for The Dr. Carol Channing-Harry Kullijian Endowment For The Arts. Carol and Harry were in attendance.
Theatre credits
- No For an Answer (January 5 and January 11, 1941
- Let's Face It! (October 29, 1941 - March 20, 1943)
(understudy for Eve Arden)
- Proof Through the Night (December 25, 1942 - January 2, 1943)
- Lend an Ear (December 16, 1948 - January 21,
1950)
- Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (December 8, 1949 - September 15, 1951)
- Wonderful Town (February 25, 1953 - July 3,
1954) (replacement for Rosalind Russell)
- The Vamp (November 10 - December 31, 1955)
- Show Girl (January 12 - April 8, 1961)
- Hello, Dolly! (January 16, 1964 -
December 27, 1970) (left show in 1967)
- Four on a Garden (January 30 - March 20, 1971)
- Lorelei (January 27 - November 3, 1974)
- Julie's Friends at the Palace (May 19, 1974) (benefit performance)
- Hello, Dolly! (March 15 - July 19, 1978) (revival)
- Legends! (January 7, 1986 - January 18, 1987) (national
tour)
- Hello, Dolly! (October 19, 1995 -
January 28, 1996) (revival; farewell tour)
Filmography
Notes
External links
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